Southern Baptists pick a California seminary president to lead its troubled administrative body

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Jeff Iorg, the longtime president of the Southern Baptist Convention's only seminary outside of the denomination's historic Bible Belt heartland, is the incoming president and CEO of the denomination's Executive Committee. Guidepost's 2022 report concluded that top SBC officials responded to abuse survivors with “resistance, stonewalling and even outright hostility.” In May 2023, the committee voted down a nomination of its own chairman, Jared Wellman, to be president, after some had urged the committee instead to consider Willie McLaurin, its interim president. Iorg acknowledged the committee faces an array of challenges, from responding to the abuse crisis to tight finances, while saying he would keep it focused on its mission of “getting the gospel to the nations.” Asked at the news conference whether he had plans for implementing any of the 17 recommendations for the Executive Committee in the Guidepost report in relation to the abuse crisis, Iorg said he would need to re-read the report in detail and familiarize himself with the recommendations. "I’m just not prepared to say today how I would respond on any individual one of those things.” Asked about a section of the report in which women staff members of the Executive Committee had said they were subject to demeaning and patronizing treatment, Iorg said his own record indicates how he would lead.